Tag Archives: Israel Truth Week

Front of LeadNow brochure handed out by LeadNow volunteer at the event in which they claim they did not participate. Click to download PDF of both sides.

Canadian LeadNow organization denies participation in Hamas-supporter David Heap’s anti-Harper event… but facts and pics show otherwise…

UPDATE, Oct 7/15: A source has sent Israel Truth Week a copy of minutes for a January 2015 meeting attended by David Heap, Council of Canadians, NDP candidate for London North Centre German Gutierez and… two LeadNow organizers. Keep this in mind as you’re reading the denial of involvement by LeadNow’s Eastern Field Organizer below.
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Israel Truth Week is pleased to say that our effort in having an anti-Harper rally in London, Ontario relocated off the grounds of the Western Fair District (WFD) Farmer’s Market not only resulted in a pitifully small display of anti-Harper venom due to a lack of traffic from market visitors, but also attracted the attention of the large, U.S.-funded (in part) Canadian leftist activist organization LeadNow (leadnow.ca).

LeadNow is actively engaged in strategic vote-splitting campaigns in various Conservative ridings across Canada, including London North Centre where Susan Truppe is the sitting MP — where the Heap rally was being held.

LeadNow was very disturbed about their organization being mentioned in ITW’s last article that exposed how David Heap and company misled the WFD about their rally being non-partisan, and our success in having it moved off WFD grounds. Their ‘Eastern Field Organizer’ Corrigan Hammond sent ITW founder Mark Vandermaas an email asking him to correct “a number of factual inaccuracies.”

They claimed they had nothing to do with the event and so, they couldn’t understand why they they were even included in the story. You can read LeadNow’s email and Mark’s replies below, but here’s the picture that exposes that lie:

The woman on the left is wearing a purple LeadNow shirt. She approached ITW’s Mark Vandermaas, handed him a LeadNow brochure, and asked him to sign a vote pledge for LeadNow’s strategic voting campaign against the Conservative candidate in London North Centre. But, LeadNow later claimed they did not participate in the event. The woman to the right is holding a handmade sign with the LeadNow name that is referring to LeadNow’s strategic voting pledge campaign.

More pictures…

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ITW Email to LeadNow Eastern Field Organizer, Corrigan Hammond

Although I oppose your position(s), I do take care to be accurate. This isn’t my first rodeo; I spent 6+ years working full time fighting racial policing in Caledonia where we went up against some vicious lying bullies led by a guy out of York U, and we had to work with media. We had a reputation for telling the truth. I’m aggressive, but I try to be careful and factual in what I write, and I apologize when I’m wrong (doesn’t happen often).

I’ve reviewed my story and I found one error that you didn’t mention that I’ve fixed, and I’ve included some quotes from your email regarding your key point. I’ll address your points 1 by 1 in red below…

Yesterday (Sat, July 26/14), at an Israel Truth Week-organized vigil, nine Christians and four Jews faced off with 300 Hamas supporters in London, Ontario while police refused to separate us and then abandoned us to be intimidated and bullied. The slideshow below tells the story, from the arrival of the first few pro-Hamas’rs to the virtual takeover of our location on a traffic island to the end when police arrive after the danger is over and the discovery that my car had been keyed.

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The pro-Hamas side had a rally planned for 5pm at the northwest corner of Victoria Park at Richmond Street. We took up position across the street on a traffic island. Our goal was to protest Hamas’ sole responsibility for the deaths of Arab and Jewish civilians; to send a message that we will not be intimidated by the anti-Jew violence in Canada and Europe; and to expose the false ‘occupation’ narrative.

As soon as we started setting up the pro-Hamas Arabs and their leftist apologists (I photographed one in an ‘Occupy London’ Tshirt) crossed the street for the specific purpose of confronting us. As one of our number pointed out, it was analogous to land-rich Arabs trying to purge little Israel of her Jews. The Hamas side had the entire park to use, but they couldn’t bear the thought of Jews and their allies using a tiny piece of land on a traffic island.

The police arrive…and disappear

Two London Police officers made a brief appearance and our conversation went something like this:

MARK: I’m Mark Vandermaas, the organizer for the pro-Israel side. These people have crossed the street to try to intimidate us and I’d appreciate if you’d tell them to stay on their side of the road.

OFFICER: They’re free to go anywhere they want to protest. Just because you got here first, it doesn’t mean this is ‘your’ side.

MARK: Great; does that mean I can tell my people to cross the street and confront them on the other side?

OFFICER: Well, no, I don’t think that would be advisable.

MARK: So, have you told them that?

OFFICER: I just got here two seconds ago.

At one point, someone from our side whom I didn’t know got hold of my Israel flag and started walking down the middle of the street, taunting the Hamas crowd. I ran out to convince her to get off the road for her safety and our good name. A police van showed up, but by that time I had my flag back and was on my way back to the island. I didn’t see any police for the remainder of the protest; they left us alone to be harassed and intimidated while ever more pro-Hamas’ers crossed the road to try to crowd us off the traffic island.

I’ve been there before…in Caledonia, where the police tried the same nonsense, abandoning us to be intimidated and assaulted by violent native militants and their leftist friends. Undoubtedly emboldened by the lack of police, motorcyclists flying ‘Palestinian’ flags repeatedly raced recklessly down the road, their engines screaming as the Hamas side cheered. It seemed that at any minute their engines’ would explode into pieces but, alas, it was not to be.

“We’re not moving.”

Fortunately, someone from the other side — named Milad — had the common sense to come speak with me in a calm, rational manner, and he worked hard to try to keep the crazies at bay, with some success, but they gradually kept crossing the street to take over the island where, eventually, a couple of bongo drummers pounded out a beat as they chanted ‘Free Gaza.’ (I couldn’t agree more: yes, please: free Gaza–from Hamas.) Continue reading →

In this concise, easy-to-understand presentation, he explains the international law that led to the creation of the original two-state solution: the 1920 San Remo Resolution which was codified in the 1922 League of Nations Mandate For Palestine. He also briefly examines the claims by opponents of Israel that the Allied Powers had no authority or intent to create a Jewish home in Palestine.

Salomon takes apart the false ‘occupation’ narrative so effectively that the viewer is left wondering how the fabrications about stolen land ever took root in the first place. If you only watch one video about Israel’s founding, this is the one.

They discuss Israel Truth Week and the need for a moratorium on all solutions-oriented activities (land give-aways & negotiations) until the world community acknowledges the status of Jewish people as ‘owners, not occupiers’ by virtue of their ‘land title deed’ from the ‘original’ two-state solution: the League of Nations Mandate For Palestine. Click image to view.

Chloe Valdary, celebrated pro-Israel student activist extraordinaire at the University of New Orleans, has recorded a greeting for attendees of the 2014 Israel Truth Week conference (registration is free) which takes place Sunday, March 23 in Toronto…

In addition to being featured by the Jewish Press, BET.com, Breitbart.com, the Jerusalem Post, among others, Algemeiner named Ms. Valdary one of the top 100 people positively affecting Jewish and Israeli life. (FrontPageMag, March 3/14)

“It’s time the truth was told. It’s time to stand together . It’s time to stop being afraid.” Mark Vandermaas, founder Israel Truth Week

A stellar array of speakers will take part in the third annual Israel Truth Week Conference, Sunday March 23 at the Lodzer Synagogue. This year the focus will be on the legality of Israel’s existence. Titled “Truth Before Solutions – Safeguarding the Honour of the Jewish People”, it will honour the late Howard Grief: attorney, legal scholar, author and champion of Israel’s land rights under international law.

Grief dedicated 25 years of his life to documenting and disseminating to the public at large, that modern Palestine was created, via the 1920 San Remo Conference and the subsequent l922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, specifically to reconstitute the “national home” of the Jewish people. That land promised to Jews east of the Jordan River was given instead to Arabs in what is now Jordan.

“Israel is an owner not an occupier,” declared Mark Vandermaas, founder of ITW. He will be delivering practical advice and strategies on pro-active responses to anti -Israel propaganda.

Mark grew up hearing about the plight of Jews under the Nazis from his Dutch born parents who had survived the Nazi occupation of Holland. Later, as a former member of the Canadian Armed Forces, he served with a United Nations peacekeeping force in the Middle East. But it was his experience with the violence and breakdown of law and order by ” the racially biased” police against the residents of Caledonia that galvanized him to action of behalf of Israel and the Jewish people.

Speakers will include Israel land rights expert, Salomon Benzimra, Richard Bass, author of Israel in World Relations and Jonathan Halevi, retired IDF career intelligence officer who specialized in Palestinian affairs, now senior researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs and Editor of Shalom Toronto.

130921 Israel Truth Week Sodastream vigil, Canadian Tire, Stoney Creek, Ontario, Canada — (L-R): David Freeman, former Chair of Toronto Chapter of CIJR, and Israel Truth Week founder Mark Vandermaas, proudly display their new Sodastream purchases with Salomon Benzimra, author of ‘The Jewish Peoples’ Rights To The Land Of Israel’; Vardit Feldman; and Steve Scheffer of Hamilton’s Never Again Group, co-organizer of the 2013 Israel Truth Week conference. David plans to donate his to a synagogue; Mark donated his to Pastor David Cumming’s Hamilton Christian Fellowship Church (not shown) in gratitude for his assistance during Israel Truth Week 2013 and for lending his support via his presence at the vigil.

Canadian Jewish News re Israel Truth Week Sodastream vigil:

As part his overall mission, Vandermaas wants to get the message out that Israel isn’t an occupier, but an owner of the land, thanks to a land title deed given to the Jewish People under international law that created the “two-state solution” in 1922. That’s when the League of Nations ratified the 1920 San Remo Resolution dividing the planned Jewish state of Palestine into two: one for Jews (now Israel) and one for Arabs (now Jordan), he said.“ Our mandate is to protest with dignity and protest with resolve. I see no more important project… than making sure the Jewish community understands San Remo,” Vandermaas said. “There is an iron-clad title deed founded in the bedrock of international law. This is not generally known, even among Jews.” “If you are going to give away a huge portion of your birthright, you better at least understand you are doing so as owners and not as monstrous occupiers. More than that, the world needs to understand.”[…]

“We follow the ways of Martin Luther King, who raised black people up instead of putting white people down, “ he said. “Why don’t they raise up the Arabs instead of tearing down the Jews?”

(UPDATED Oct 09/13): Yesterday’s (Sept 21) Israel Truth vigil at Canadian Tire, organized in response to planned anti-Sodastream picketing by the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War (HCSW), Canadians for Peace and Justice in the Middle East (CPJME); and the Palestinian Association of Hamilton (PAH) was a wonderful success, and the rain that poured down on us only made what was to become a great victory even more sweet.

Community leaders and their supporters — Jewish, Muslim, Christian, Hindu (and a few atheists) — from London, Hamilton and Toronto came to stand for Israel against the intimidation of Sodastream, an Israeli company that manufactures carbonation appliances in Judea-Samaria that has saved billions of cans and bottles from landfills around the world. Participants included:

Members of Hamilton’s Never Again Group. (co-organizers of 2013 Israel Truth Week conference; they prefer to maintain a truly virtual presence by not being online).

Pastor David Cummings, Hamilton Christian Fellowship (he hosted a screening of Precious Life during Israel Truth Week 2013, a movie about an Israeli doctor who saves the life of a Gazan baby whose mother later talks about him being a suicide bomber.)

Monica Di Francesco, speaker at ITW 2013 on behalf of Return Ministries, with her daughter: Baptism by Wind, Rain And Fire: Riding Under Missiles From Gaza for ALL The Children of ALYN Hospital — Jewish, Christian And Arab.

1. Pro-Israel forces arrive and set up HQ in the rain on public road allowance near the west entrance of Canadian Tire on Nash Road in Stoney Creek. I first took a few minutes to introduce myself to the store manager and the onsite security they had hired. I explained that we would not protest on their private property nor interfere with their business. I also had staff put away 2 Sodastream machines for us to buy at the end of the protest. We kept our word, staying on public land near one of the main driveway entrance roads.

2. Monica DiFrancesco (speaker at 2013 ITW conference) and Vardit Feldman from Toronto keep dry and use Israel Truth Week signs to send a message to passers-by that there’s another side to this issue.

4. Anti-Israel forces take up positions in front of Canadian Tire entrance. In contrast to our approach of not interfering with the business of CAnadian Tire, the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War (HSCW), on the other hand, marched straight up to the front door, harassing bystanders and impeding customers.

5. These two Muslim women send their message: We hate Sodastream and the jobs they provide for our fellow Arabs!

6. Hamilton Police tell remaining anti-Israel stragglers to get off private property after Gary McHale (not seen in this photo) tells security that if Canadian Tire is consenting to a protest on their property, he will advise the pro-Israel side so they, too, can relocate to the entrance area. The security folks make it clear that no protesters have permission to be on the property, so they had to relocate. Since we had already occupied the best location on public property near the entrance closest to the store (with a very nice tree for shelter from the non-stop rain) they had nowhere else to go but the other entrance which is a long way from the store, on the main thoroughfare. One of our supporters reported that they looked quite forlorn standing in the rain with no shelter, no protest and no audience. They left shortly afterwards.

7. As the anti-Israel side walks away to the far-away north entrance from Queenston Road after being told to leave, one wants to know, ‘why are we leaving already?’ Gary McHale can be seen in the background smiling as their protest ends before it really gets started — thanks to his firm intervention to ensure both sides were treated equally.

8. (L-R): David Freeman, former Chair of Toronto Chapter of CIJR, and I proudly display our new Sodastream purchases with Salomon Benzimra, author of The Jewish Peoples’ Rights To The Land Of Israel; Vardit Feldman from Toronto; and Steve Scheffer of Hamilton’s Never Again Group, co-organizer of the 2013 Israel Truth Week conference.

9. (L-R): Pastor David Cummings of the Hamilton Christian Fellowship – who hosted an ITW 2013 screening of the movie Precious Life that raised nearly $1000 for ALYN children’s hospital in Jerusalem – accepts my Sodastream as a donation to his church, the Hamilton Christian Fellowship. David Freeman’s Sodastream will be donated to a Toronto synagogue.

10. Pro-Israel forces gather at their temporary HQ in the rain to hear my final words of thanks and a recap of the day’s many accomplishments before heading home to dry out.

11. The Sodastream carbonation appliance — buy one for yourself!

Other important people (all photos by Christine McHale)

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Supporting Sodastream…and Israel’s ‘San Remo/League of Nations Two State Solution Land Title Deed’

We were there to use the Hamilton Coalition to Stop the War event to support Sodastream, and to expose the public to the inconvenient truth that Israel is an owner, not an occupier thanks to a ‘land title deed’ given to the Jewish people under international law that created the original and still-legal ‘two state solution’ in 1922 when the League of Nations ratified the 1920 San Remo Resolution and the dividing the planned Jewish state of Palestine into two: one for Jews (now Israel) and one for Arabs (now Jordan), and it ended the nearly 2,000 year long colonization of Jewish land by foreigners. Unfortunately, Israel’s two-state solution land title deed has been consistently violated by the Muslims who refuse to accept the reconstituted Jewish state in their midst.

Renanah Goldhar-Gemeiner: ‘Petition to the House of Commons of Canada for the Reaffirmation of Jewish Legal Rights to the Land of Israel…‘ (drafted by land rights scholar, Attorney Howard Grief, an excellent summary of events and legal developments) [PDF, 4p]

NOTE: While Israel Truth Week has been very active in educating the public and pro-Israel activists about San Remo Resolution and the League of Nations ratification, and planned to focus even more efforts on this area, the idea of building a pro-Israel marketing strategy around the ‘original two-state solution’ was inspired by Pamela Geller’s speech during her Sept 18/13 visit to Toronto in which she outlined what would be her response to misleading ads run by anti-Israel groups.

Supporting Palestinian Arabs and the environment

We also came to show our support for the hundreds of Palestinian Arabs who would lose their jobs of anti-Israel groups were successful in their quest to shut down an employer that feeds the families of approximately 500 Arabs in just one plant alone. As one of our supporters said, ‘Why are the Israel-haters trying to keep Palestinians poor, un-employed, and filled with hate? Because it serves their cause of destroying the Jewish state, the only capitalist, democratic country in the Middle East.’ (Indeed, what other agenda could one ascribe to people who are demonizing a company who provides great benefit to the very people they claim to care about?)

(UPDATED July 04/13) Israel Truth Week founder Mark Vandermaas has been invited to say a few words at the memorial service for the noted Israeli legal historian, author, and lawyer Howard Grief who passed away recently…

I, like many others, Jew and Gentile, once believed that it was the 1947 UN vote for Partition that gave Israel her legitimacy under international law. I was wrong, very wrong, as I would discover with the help of several Jewish activists who had stood on the shoulders of a giant named Howard Grief to educate me and so many others woefully ignorant of the facts.

Salomon Benzimra has led a fascinating life. He was born in 1943 in the International Zone of Tangiers (now Morocco) which was a refuge for many cultures. His early education was in French schools, but his family was Spanish-speaking. In fact, his distant ancestors lived in Spain during the 1400’s and were among the many who crossed the Straits of Gilbralter to escape the Inquisition. In addition to French, Spanish and English, Salomon also reads Hebrew, and reads and speaks a bit of Arabic.

He studied chemical engineering in France and worked in Morocco and Montreal before moving to Toronto in 1976. He became involved in Israeli and world affairs after 9/11 and began writing for publication.